Page 115 of Ensnared by the Pack: The Complete Series (Destined Realms #3)
AUDREY
The inside of the school/community center looked like a regular school without any people in it. There were open doors at regular intervals, revealing empty classrooms, and smaller halls breaking off from the main one to get to more classrooms.
In the center of the building was a grand foyer with a wide staircase, similar to the one in the Residence. The stairs swept up all three stories in the same meet halfway break apart to a landing on either side of the building style. It’d be a pain in the ass if you had classes on both sides of the building and had to go down half a flight and back up to reach the other, but it looked spectacular.
I could hear the soft sounds of people talking from somewhere in the building, but I didn’t see anyone and could only assume it was the weekend or summer break or something since it was just after lunch and there should have been classes going.
The voices, however, grew louder the closer we got to the back of the school. Here, the rooms had more of an office look with long rectangular or wide circular tables, and more comfortable looking chairs. Or they were completely empty of furniture with large rugs on the floor instead of the polished stone in the rest of the building.
“Here,” Cyrus said as he stopped at an open door and gestured for me to enter.
“Thank you, alpha,” I murmured as I stepped into the room.
All conversation in the room stopped and everyone stared at me.
Then Cyrus stepped in behind me and all the eyes rose a foot and a half above my head.
“Where’s Nova?” he asked.
“Got hung up at the hospital. Said she’d be here in about ten minutes,” a very familiar looking young man said.
Why did he look familiar?
Oh! The guy from the road on the outskirts of town when Bishop and I had returned from our long journey north. He’d told me his name… but as much as I wracked my brain, I couldn’t remember it.
“Good.” Cyrus turned on his heel and strode back down the hall, leaving me in a room full of strangers. Strangers who were looking at me with an unsettling mix of emotions.
Swell.
Everyone was seated around a circular table, and, if the chairs between people were any indication, they were separated into three groups.
The group closest to me consisted of three girls and two guys. They looked to be around my age, maybe a year or two younger, and had the darkest, most unnerving expressions. But I didn’t know if they didn’t like me because they were friends or family of Velora or Finn, or just because I was a stranger.
The group to my left, who were older, mid-thirties, had two women and two men. From the way they were sitting together, it looked like they were two mated pairs. They looked intensely curious, reminding me too much of Thane and his barrage of questions.
The final group, to my right and closer to the back, consisted of the guy I’d met the other night whose name I couldn’t remember and a tiny woman with a soft, kind, smile.
“I’ve got a seat right here for you, Audrey,” the guy said, pushing out the chair beside him and making my cheeks heat with embarrassment because he’d remembered my name and I couldn’t remember his.
“Thank you.” I hurried around the table and sat, my pulse picking up as people continued to stare at me.
From the alpha power radiating off them, one of the women in the group of four and the nice guy beside me were the strongest, although neither of them were close to my guys’ or Cyrus’s strength. The others were still stronger than me, but not by so much that I wouldn’t be able to resist their compulsion.
“Jeez, guys,” Nice Guy said. “Why don’t you introduce yourselves instead of staring.”
One of the women in the group of five who had black hair and piercing green eyes huffed. “I want to know why the alpha personally escorted her here.”
“Yeah,” the guy beside her said. He had matching black hair and green eyes and was probably her brother. “He’s got more important things to do, especially after taking off with her for a month.”
The other woman in the group who reminded me of a slightly younger version of Velora with her dark hair and similar bone structure nodded her agreement, her stare edged with a hint of jealousy.
“I—” I started then stopped myself before I told them Bishop was supposed to have escorted me.
Given how all the other women seemed interested in Bishop and how Velora’s possible sister or cousin or whatever she was had looked after I’d shown up with Cyrus, it probably wasn’t smart to mention I also spent time with Bishop. Sure it was going to come out sooner or later — like tomorrow when we walked around the festival together — that Bishop was courting me to be his mate, but I’d rather make the confession with at least one person I trusted in the room with me.
“Is it true you’re mated to Knox?” a bulky guy in the foursome asked.
“Of course it’s true,” the black-haired green-eyed guy said. “He wouldn’t have lost his shit like that and run deeper into town if she hadn’t been his mate.”
“My uncle saw it all,” one of the girls in the foursome said. She was gorgeous and curvy and I was shocked that no one in the room was giving her a second look. Perhaps it was because she seemed almost as shy as me. “He’s never seen Knox act like that before and it was definitely the behavior of a bonded mate.”
“So what’s she doing with Cyrus?” asked Female Green Eyes from the group of five — now dubbed the Nasty group in my mind because they were the first group I’d noticed and no one was sharing their name.
“Knox is on a hunt,” I said, looking up but not making eye contact with any of them. I didn’t know if it was smart to offer an explanation but no one here was an alpha and the strongest wolf in the room was Nice Guy. “Cyrus has a meeting in town and said the community center was on his way.”
Not-Velora frowned and crossed her arms. “But he came in and checked the room.”
“I saw that too,” a guy from Nasty added. He had shaggy blond hair and a slim figure, and the third girl in the group, just as skinny as him, leaned against his shoulder and possessively clung to his arm.
Nice Guy rolled his eyes. “Of course he did. One of the foreigners attacked her. He’d do the same for any of us.”
Shy girl of the more neutral foursome glanced up at me with a sad smile. “My uncle said she hurt herself.”
“That’s what I heard,” Not-Velora agreed.
“She’s mated to Knox. Would you blame her?” the black-haired guy asked. Everyone stiffened and my stomach churned with the clashing urges to stand up for Knox and not draw even more attention to myself.
Nice Guy growled low in his throat, his bright green eyes darkening as his wolf rose to the surface. “He’s your alpha and you just insulted him in front of his mate.” The rumble in his chest deepened and he leaned forward. “If you want to get hurt so badly become a hunter or join the watch.”
Black-haired Guy’s eyes widened as if suddenly realizing what he’d said. “I’m sorry, alpha.”
Alpha? Was he talking to Nice Guy, who clearly wasn’t an alpha, or apologizing into the air just in case Knox was listening in?
Except from the way he was looking at me, he was really talking to me.
Soft Smile sitting beside Nice Guy must have seen my confusion because she leaned in front of Nice Guy and said, “You’re mated to one of our alphas. It’s respectful—” She shot a stern look at everyone else “—to call the alpha’s mate alpha as well, especially when apologizing or acknowledging a command.”
Dear, God! They couldn’t call me alpha. Cyrus would lose his mind.
He’d already made it crystal clear that I was not and never would be an alpha in his pack. Surely this would push him over the edge and the punishment that I knew he was holding onto would happen. This was the kind of situation Merrick had loved: an impossible one that I had no control over.
The black-haired girl and Not-Velora shared a glance, something dark passing between them that they clearly wanted me to see. These shifters were able to communicate telepathically in their human forms unlike most shifters in my realm and they could have easily had a conversation without looking at each other.
“You’re right, Quinn,” the powerful girl in the group of four said. “Just because Knox is more reclusive than our other alphas doesn’t mean he isn’t one.”
“My uncle also believes, given how Knox stays away from everyone and how powerful his reaction to his mate being hurt was that they have to be fated,” Shy Girl said, offering me another tentative smile.
I returned it while everyone else stared at me again. Those in Nasty looked skeptical, everyone in Neutral was curious and nodded their agreement, while Nice Guy and the girl beside him, Quinn, looked happy and slightly amazed… because as I’d learned at dinner the other night, fated mates were just as rare here as they were back home.
Then Nova strode into the room, looked at me right away, and smiled. The tension that I’d been trying to ignore since Cyrus left me alone with strangers, eased a little, and Quinn blew out a soft breath as if she’d been tense, too.
“Sorry I’m late,” Nova said as she shut the door behind her and set a bright yellow duffle bag in front of an empty chair between Nasty and Neutral. “Have you introduced yourselves to Audrey?”